Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The fire begins to burn

The
fire begins to burn, and we rush to quench it.

We
had a friend with a passion for teenagers, and her passion was specifically around
the music teenagers liked to listen to. She wanted teenagers to know that there
were alternatives to the violence- and-sex-drenched songs produced across so many
musical genres. With full support, she started a small lending library ministry
on Sunday mornings at church – wheeling out racks of Christian music CDs – rap,
country, rock, pop, even heavy metal (who knew?). The church teens swarmed
around it.

She
spent a lot of her own money to buy the CDs. She listened to each one. She
staffed the library each Sunday. The teens loved it. She loved it.

Someone
on the church staff took notice, and discovered that it was a ministry that was
not to be found on the official organization chart. Eventually, the staff took
over.

The
music ministry to teens died. No one had the passion and the commitment our
friend had. No one could talk to the teens about the music like she could.

Churches
grow, add staff and managerial duties, and manage ministries. But like in any
organization, the purpose of staff is partially one of control. Companies do
this, non-profits do this, governments at all levels do this. And, unfortunately,
so do churches.

“Instead
of encouraging people who are doing courageous things for God and joining them
in their discernment process of how to be faithful to what God is calling them
to do,” Chan writes, “we tell them to slow down and back off.”

The
fire begins to burn, and we rush to quench it.

I’ve
talked before about problems we’ve encountered with churches and church
organization; it’s not a problem only recently discovered by millennials. Churches
can get caught up in corporate models of management, or the latest fashion or
craze, as easily as the general culture can. And churches just as susceptible to
the problems that result.

Many
church members want to see the status quo maintained; others want to see the
status quo shaken up. It’s been my own unfortunate experience to be caught between
both on more than one occasion. But they both share one central practice in
common: they are both the result of human desires, aims, thought, and plans. We
dress it up in the right churchy language, of course, but that’s what much of
this actually is – the plans of humans.

Chan’s
concern is not about one specific way for people and churches to be radical.
There is no one specific way. Instead, he says, “it is both about encouraging
others to obey the Spirit’s leadings and about listening to and obeying His
leading in your own life.”

The
fire begins to burn. What if, rather than rushing in to quench it, we simply
watched it to see what might happen?

Led
by Jason Stasyszen and Sarah Salter, we’ve been reading Chan’s Forgotten God. Today’s discussion
concludes the book. To see more posts on this final section, please visit Jason
at Connecting to Impact.

4 comments:

It is sad that we do this and no one is really immune. It takes diligence and paying attention to the Holy Spirit and how He's moving. We make snap judgments or try to "help" (which can sometimes just mean taking over). He fits and fashions the Body how He desires and He wants everyone to play their distinct part. Great reminder, Glynn. Thank you.

I think this may be my very favorite book study you've reported here. This one just KILLS me - why would a staff stop a volunteer ministry that was working?? Makes NO sense to me. At all. But I know these kinds of things happen. I wrote about a church hero of mine at ADS today - and this woman would be on that list, in my book. Thanks, Glynn.

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Professional writer exploring faith and culture, life and work; happily married to Janet, the love of my life; father of two grown sons. Award-winning speechwriter and communication consultant. I am also a contributing editor for The High Calling and for TweetSpeak Poetry. I am also the author of the novels "Dancing Priest" and "A Light Shining," and the non-fiction book "Poetry at Work."